Can't go "home" again...

For what it's worth... I just suddenly realized I can no longer compose a
piece in 12-tET... Thanks a lot.

I tried. After 10+ plus hours of written music, much of it published, it
is now of no avail. The piece I just started, determined to be in 12-tET
is now also microtonal... Anything else now seems "simplistic."
Help. I am halfway up a mountain and there is no turning back... Jerry
Eskelin is right...

Help... I need somebody.... [I guess that's ripe for "high 3rd"
analysis...]

Joseph Pehrson

>For what it's worth... I just suddenly realized I can no longer compose a
>piece in 12-tET... Thanks a lot.
>
>I tried. After 10+ plus hours of written music, much of it published, it
>is now of no avail. The piece I just started, determined to be in 12-tET
>is now also microtonal... Anything else now seems "simplistic."
>Help. I am halfway up a mountain and there is no turning back... Jerry
>Eskelin is right...

I went through a stage like this, but later I came to see 12tet as just
another interesting tuning, and that its not an "either/or" proposition
(gotta watch out for that quasi-religious zealotry that sometimes rears its
head among microtonalists). . Just as different languages allow for
different expression, so do different tunings, and 12tet has amply proved
its fecundity as a language. Neither do I think its possiblilities have been
exhausted. Of course its tremedously exciting to journey into the largely
unexplored jungle of microtonality, but hanging out in your familiar living
room sometimes is fun too. I like doing both.

Sometimes after playing JI guitar, when I pick up my 12tet guitar it sounds
"out of tune" for a minute. (Actually, it >is< out of tune from that
perspective). Of course some of the sounds on the JI guitar are pretty "out
there" from any perspective that I can hear from. JI doesn't really sound
"out of tune", but can be much more wildly dissonant than anything in 12tet!
Even if 12tet sounds a little "monochrome" compared to JI, black and white
photography and drawings can be just as great as color.

Dante

[Joseph Pehrson:]
> For what it's worth... I just suddenly realized I can no longer
compose a piece in 12-tET... Thanks a lot.

Dear Joe,

Like most manias, microlust will probably subside a bit over time, but
chances are your doomed... soon you may find yourself gazing upon even
your oldest and dearest friends, perhaps the beloved piano... with ill
intent and bloodshot eyes... a tuning wrench trembling in a sweaty
palm...

Dr. Dan (all my nice guitars used to have frets) Stearns